


The train to toulouse

by liionne



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-08
Updated: 2013-05-08
Packaged: 2017-12-10 20:18:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/789739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liionne/pseuds/liionne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven hours with a person in a confined space made you good companions</p>
            </blockquote>





	The train to toulouse

Marius boarded the train with his laptop bag slung over his shoulder, his suitcase in his hand and a clap on the back from Courfeyrac. It was all the send off he needed, really; Marius wasn't one for big grand gestures where all of his friends gathered on the platform to wave him off. Having his best friend there was good enough for him.

The train ride was a long one, but with his laptop on hand he would find something to do. The seven hour journey to Toulouse was longer than usual, due to the added stop in the middle that he wouldn't be getting off the train for, so he had plenty of time to get things done. And by 'get things done' he meant skyping Courfeyrac s best as he could with the crappy train wifi after typing up notes on a half a sociology lecture.

The seats on the train were arranged in groups of four, with a table separating a couple of seats. He couldn't see it as being too busy, and every other trip to the summer house in Toulouse he had took he'd had a table to himself. But, as he boarded the train today, he noticed the seemingly excessive number of people getting on. He settled himself in a forwards facing seat by the window regardless, opened up his laptop, and tried his best to connect to the wifi that came free with his ticket.

The train was close to pulling away when Marius grew aware of the person standing over him, hovering beside his table unsurely. He looked up, dragging his eyes away from the powerpoint he was trying to download to look at the girl who was stood beside him.

She was gorgeous. Tumbling blonde hair that fell just below her shoulders, deep blue eyes that seemed so nervous and naive, pale ivory skin that seemed to glitter in the light from the window to Marius's right. She had a bag slung over one shoulder, and she clutched a large sketch book to her chest. She had paint smudges up her arms, and her hands were smudged with colour. She bit down on her full bottom lip as she looked at Marius unsurely. "Mind if I sit there?" She asked, nodding her hair at the spare seats opposite Marius's.

Of course he didn't object. "Not at all." He shrugged, looking back to his notes. He tried to fake nonchalance as he texted Courfeyrac under the table: _skype's cancelled, sat next to a hot chick_

As the train pulled away Marius looked up to catch her gazing wistfully out of the window, her lower lip protruding slightly in a pout that told him that she was unhappy. He watched her for a hile, caught up in the way she looked and the way she acted, the way the hairs around her face danced in some tiny, unnoticable breeze that drafted through the carriage, and the way her nose turned up ever so slightly at the end. Her eyes flicked towards him, and she turned her body entirely to face him, so he looked down at his laptop and began to type.

No reply from Courfeyrac prompte Marius to frown. He sighed a little, attracting the attention from the girl, but he ignored her, this time. He set his phone down next to the computer and tried to focus on the work in front of him. Typing up notes was always boring, but it had to be done. The girl opposite had set down her large sketchbook, and had flicked it open to a page filled with large, dark strokes and lighter, softer strokes that created some image that Marius couldn't make out. The girl had fetched a pencil from somewhere in her old, battered looking leather satchel, and now she made new, broad strokes over one part of the paper. Marius moved the laptop slightly to watch. She was expert in her movements, making large, sweeping motions and tiny, hair like scratches of lead all across the page. She rubbed, she erased and she pondered, looking over her work and rubbing her chin with the finger she had jut used to soften the pencil strokes, leaving dark lines across her pale skin that made Marius chuckle softly.

It was a while before she realised he was watching.

"It's good." Marius nodded to the drawing when she looked up, wide blue eyes searching his own as if for some sign of approval.

Her cheeks pinkened slightly and she looked down at the work with a shrug. "It's all right, I suppose. Not the best."

Marius smiled at her modesty. "Better than anything I could ever do."

She smiled back, but made no other comment. Then, after a little while, she asked, "Was it that you're doing?"

Marius felt as if she felt compelled to make small talk, only taking an interest in his work because of the interest he had just taken in hers. He didn't mind answering the question, however. "Writing up sociology notes for Uni. It's Easter break, but I might as well get it done now and get it out of the way."

"You study sociology?" She asked, tilting her head slightly in curiosity.

Marius nodded. At first, it almost hadn't been his choice. He had jut wanted to do something that his father didn't want him to do. His grandfather wanted him to be a lawyer, or a politician, or an accountant, or a doctor, or some big important type person that earned a lot of money and did virtually nothing. But Marius had other ideas. He wanted to be free to be his own person, and that had meant not doing what his grandfather wanted him to. Courfeyrac had taken sociology with a few guys they knew, and so Marius jumped on the bandwaggon and had taken the course.

Now, three years in, he regretted it and revelled in it all at the same time.

"It's not as interesting as it sounds." He grimaced, looking at the notes in front of him. It was taking everything for him just to concentrate.

After another lapse of silence between the two passengers, Marius felt the need to speak up again. He could feel the girl distancing herself from the conversation as time went by, and he certainly didn't want that. So he said rather simply, "I'm Marius, by the way."

The girl looked up from her work. "Cosette." She nodded, smiling.

"Pleasure to meet you, Cosette." Marius grinned. It was a pleasant name, a beautiful name that rolled off of the toungue. "Mind me asking why you're going to Toulouse?"

She shook her head slightly. "I hear it's really beautiful and I want to paint the scenery. And my Dad wanted me to go away with friends, anyway, but..."

"Going alone?" Marius guessed.

Cosette nodded. "Not got anyone to go with."

Marius pondered that quietly. How could a girl as seemingly talented and pretty as she not have any friends? Maybe she did, but none of them could go. If she were his friend he would make all the time in the world for her, but here she was alone on what was apparently her first trip away from home. Ever.

"What are you going there for?" She asked, again returning the question as if out of politeness.

"Easter break," He shrugged. "My grandfather has a summer house out there so we're going down for the month."

"Hm." She mumbled. Summer house seemed awfully grand for her. "A summer house?" She asked.

Marius then realised how big and horrible that must have sounded. He grimaced slightly. "Yeah. My grandfather likes to indulge."

He left it at that for fear of scaring her off. Her tatty, paint splattered dress and old looking bag and boots didn't scream 'rich girl' to him, and maybe that was why he liked her. But to those unfamiliar with the lifestyle that Marius had had before leaving home for university, a scary thought.

The rest of the jounrey seemed to pass in a sort of blur for Marius. He did get off the train at the break, to go and get a coffee that didn't taste like carpet sweepings with Cosette. Back on the train he put his laptop away, forgot about his lectures, skipped his skype call with Courf and then ignored the thousands of angry texts he sent him over the next few hours. They passed through scenery and towns alike, and sometimes Cosette's gaze would be torn from Marius's features to the view outside the window, and she would explain to him how to capture the wind through the trees and the yellow flowers sprouting out through the long blades of grass.

And then, all too soon, the train pulled into it's station at Toulouse.

Standing at the entrance to the train station in Toulouse, having gotten off the train with little to no fuss, Marius and Cosette stood together. One had to go one way, and one had to go another, and it was hard to separate themselves. Seven hours with a person in a confined space made you good companions, it seemed. Cosette clutched her sketch book to her chest, and Marius looped his hand around the strap of his bag. The two looked anywhere at each other, before saying simultaneously,

"My grandfather's cars' here."

"There's a taxi, i should really go."

The two looked at each other, gave a laugh. Another few seconds of awkward silence prompted Marius to wonder if he should go in for a kiss on the cheek; he didn't. Instead, he took a half step back, tilting his body towards the car. "I'll probably see you around, then."

"Probably." She nodded, following his action as she began to turn the other way.

Marius nodded, resisted the urge to say 'hopefully' and raised his hand in a wave. Cosette copied the action, and, deciding he was happy with that outcome, Marius turned his back to her, and strode quickly towards the black car that stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the more casual, cheaper looking cars. Cosette turned too, walking to the taxi that had pulled into one of the free bays. She slif in quickly, not wanting to look as if she was hesitating. Marius slid into the car and gave a muted greeting to the driver. He tried to see if he could see her out of the window, still stood on the pavement or making her way towards him, but she was gone. With a sigh, Marius told the driver to go. Cosette gave him the address of the hostel she was staying in. The two cars pulled away, heading in opposite directions, taking their passengers to different places.

They never met again in Toulouse that month.


End file.
